This specification relates to organizing activity histories.
The World Wide Web (the web) is large and complex. In a process of navigating the web, a user often loses track of what he or she has visited. For example, a typical web user often wishes to revisit a previously viewed webpage, but cannot remember what the previously viewed webpage was or how to get to the page. It is therefore difficult for the user to find the page again.
Several conventional technologies allow users to find webpages that are previously visited. For example, bookmarks are a simple tool for keeping references to visited pages. However, inserting a bookmark for a webpage requires the user to recognize the value of a page currently being viewed and to perform an action adding the bookmark to the page.
Additionally, typical web browsers can retain the user's browser history. In addition to client-based histories, the user can also use server-based services (e.g., Google Web History). Browsing histories enable the user to search for entries in his web history using text queries, akin to web searches. Typically, browsing histories simply provide a list of user actions in the order they occurred. Existing browsing histories have no intuitive abstractions built upon them. Finding information within browsing histories grows more difficult with size. Users often elect to re-find information by issuing new web queries rather than search the users' browsing histories.